MAC-Shaper — Per-MAC bandwidth control for OpenWrt

mac-shaper is a lightweight traffic shaping solution for OpenWrt that allows you to limit or control bandwidth per MAC address using Linux tc and ifb.

It consists of:
- a backend daemon and init script
- LuCI web interface
- optional meta-package for easy installation

✅ Tested on OpenWrt 24.10.4. ❌ Not compatible with OpenWrt 24.10.5.

📦 Browse Packages & Documentation
🚀 Latest Release

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✨ Features

• Per-MAC upload & download rate limiting
• Enable / disable individual rules without deleting them
• Fast reload without reboot
• LuCI UI with inline enable/disable checkboxes
• Clean UCI-based configuration
• Designed for embedded devices

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📦 Packages

Package	Description
mac-shaper	Backend scripts, init.d service
luci-app-mac-shaper	LuCI web interface

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🧰 Requirements

• OpenWrt 24.10.4
• Kernel support for:
  • tc
  • ifb
  • sch_htb

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🚀 Installation

Method 1: Using Custom Feed (Recommended)

📦 Browse all available packages: https://dimadoescode.github.io/MAC-Shaper/

Step 1: Add the custom feed to your router

Choose your architecture from the list below (or visit the package repository to browse all available targets):

Architecture	Feed URL
ipq806x-generic	https://dimadoescode.github.io/MAC-Shaper/ipq806x-generic
mvebu-cortexa9	https://dimadoescode.github.io/MAC-Shaper/mvebu-cortexa9

# SSH into your OpenWrt router
ssh root@192.168.1.1

# Add the feed (replace URL with your architecture)
echo "src/gz mac_shaper_feed https://dimadoescode.github.io/MAC-Shaper/ipq806x-generic" >> /etc/opkg/customfeeds.conf

Step 2: Disable signature checking

Since these packages are not officially signed, you need to temporarily disable signature verification:

# Edit the opkg configuration
vi /etc/opkg.conf

# Find the line:
#   option check_signature
# And comment it out by adding # at the beginning:
#   #option check_signature

# Or use sed to do it automatically:
sed -i 's/^option check_signature/#option check_signature/' /etc/opkg.conf

Step 3: Install packages

opkg update
opkg install mac-shaper luci-app-mac-shaper

Step 4: (Optional) Re-enable signature checking

After installation, you can re-enable signature verification for official packages:

sed -i 's/^#option check_signature/option check_signature/' /etc/opkg.conf

⚠️ Security Note: Disabling signature checks should be done carefully. Only install packages from trusted sources. You can re-enable signature verification immediately after installing these packages.

Method 2: Manual Installation from Releases

Download the .ipk files for your architecture from the Releases page and install them manually:

# Transfer files to your router
scp *.ipk root@192.168.1.1:/tmp/

# SSH into router and install
ssh root@192.168.1.1
cd /tmp
opkg install mac-shaper_*.ipk
opkg install luci-app-mac-shaper_*.ipk

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⚙️ Configuration

Configuration file: /etc/config/mac-shaper

Example:

config mac-shaper 'general'
    option device 'br-lan'
    option default_bw '200mbit'
    option burst 'auto'
    option cburst 'auto'

config rule
    option mac 'AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF'
    option rate '50mbit'
    option enabled '1'
    option comment 'Laptop'

Apply changes:

/etc/init.d/mac-shaper reload

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🖥 LuCI Web Interface

LuCI interface is available under: Services → MAC Shaper

Features:

• quick enable / disable of rules
• live status display
• safe testing of limits

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🛠 Supported Targets

Target	Architecture	Common Devices
ipq806x-generic	ARM Cortex-A15	Linksys E8350, Netgear R7800, TP-Link C2600
mvebu-cortexa9	ARM Cortex-A9	Linksys WRT1900AC/S, WRT3200ACM

More targets can be added easily via CI. Open an issue to request support for your device!

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🔧 Troubleshooting

Package installation fails

• Ensure you've disabled signature checking (see Installation Step 2)
• Verify your router's architecture matches the feed URL
• Check that you have enough storage space: df -h

Service doesn't start

# Check service status
/etc/init.d/mac-shaper status

# View logs
logread | grep mac-shaper

# Check if required kernel modules are loaded
lsmod | grep ifb
lsmod | grep sch_htb

Rules not applying

# Verify configuration syntax
uci show mac-shaper

# Reload service
/etc/init.d/mac-shaper reload

# Check traffic control rules
tc qdisc show
tc class show dev ifb0

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📜 LICENSE

GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
Version 3, 29 June 2007

Copyright (C) 2025

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program.  If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

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🤝 Contributing

Pull requests and issues are welcome! Please feel free to:

• Report bugs
• Request new features
• Submit pull requests
• Request support for additional architectures

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📊 Build Status

Packages are automatically built using GitHub Actions for multiple OpenWrt targets. Check the Actions tab for build status.

Latest Release: